The Me’ir Nesivim

Rav Meir Margulies was born in 5465 in the town of Yazlowitz to his father, Rav Tzvi Hirsh, who served as Rav of the town. In his father’s home, he absorbed Torah and holiness, and already by the age of five, he was learning Mishnah and Gemara.

During his childhood, he became close to the Baal Shem Tov, and when he was twelve, he traveled to him with his older brother, Rav Yitzchak Ber. As he wrote in his will (Sod Yachin UBoaz Ch. 2): “And from my childhood, from the day that I was introduced to the dveikus and love of my master Moreinu HaRav Yisrael, תנצב”ה, I knew with faith that his practices were with holiness and purity, with chassidus and prishus… and kevod Hashem haster davar.”

Rav Meir served as Rav in many towns. When he was twenty-nine, he was appointed to serve under his father in Yazlowitz, and later he served in the towns of Breslov, Komarna, Lvov, Horodonka and Ostroh. Questions in halachah were directed to him from communities far and wide, and everything that he uttered was accepted with awe throughout the Jewish Diaspora.

He wrote many seforim, but only a few of them were actually published, among them Me’ir Nesivim, shu’t and Al HaTorah; Kesonos Ohr, on the 613 mitzvos; Mikveh Hamayim on the halachos of mikvaos and the sefer of his will and testament that he left for his children entitled Sod Yachin UBoaz.

On Shabbos Parashas Achrei Mos, 10 Iyar 5550, his pure soul ascended On High. He was laid to rest in the ancient cemetery in Ostroh.